In railroading, a drawbar and coupler at the end of each railcar couple with an opposing coupler and drawbar of a longitudinally adjacent railcar to form a train. If the drawbar or coupler on a railcar is damaged or nonfunctional, some means is required to maintain the connection between the railcars such that the disabled railcar can be towed to a siding. Current techniques involve a tow strap and ratchet system, which is unreliable because of the frequency with which the strap and/or ratchet break.
Other solutions for towing a disabled railcar have also proven burdensome and unreliable. For example, a combination of tow ropes and boundary hooks is sometimes utilized, but boundary hooks are heavy and therefore challenging to couple onto a railcar for towing. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have systems and methods that take into account one or more of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.